Metal Reviews

John Pilger - Freedom Next Time

Added Hunter S. Thompson - Hell's Angels to my list.

My notes. Studying for all my damn finals.

2 more days, then .

hm, ive had that one lying around for many a year and never got round to reading it.

Pretty interesting. The chapter on Palestine was an eye-opener, personally. Good writer too, which helps.

Started Ghost Rider by Neil Peart too, after the library finally got it in for me today.

Recently its been comics. Read through some newer Deadpools, Skaar: Son of Hulk, and Thors. Read the Brian Azzarello Joker graphic novel, Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes and Batman: Cacophony as well. I might be reading Kingdom Come sometime soon (yay Alex Ross), and if Christmas goes well, there should be some more Preacher and Scott Pilgrim in my future. Count Zero is still on the table, and speaking of Gibson, apparently the MSU library has the Neuromancer graphic novel, which is cool because that seems like it might be hard to find elsewhere.

Ooh, how is that Joker thing? Trying to find a copy.

finished The English Patient, a little lovey dovey at times but Oondatje is a good writer so i burned through it pretty quickly. now reading Vonnegut - Galapagos and already 80 pages in so i'll probably be finished it pretty fast.

Galapagos wasn't my favorite but still pretty good.

So I just realized that if I don't write in/take notes or highlight in a book I don't retain much about it.

Well, first off, I borrowed it, and I think its only out in hardcover, so the price is probably a little steep for the number of pages/content. That being said, its pretty good. Some of the pages are painted as opposed to being drawn normally, which is pretty cool. The general premise is a neat one, what with a guy following the Joker around, trying to get "in" with him, I guess. Its an interesting story, but not a ton of stuff happens, I suppose. I don't know. I'd recommend reading it, but if you can read before you buy, I'd do so.

The Great Gatsby. Read it quickly a few years ago and am now reading through it with an attention to the subtext and metaphors.

Wars of Position by Timothy Brennan. Something like how the Left strayed away from Marxism during the late 70s to the present due to the American biases surrounding it and how it's biting them in the ass now.

William Paul Young - The Shack

I'm about halfway through. It's been very interesting so far.

bought Watchmen for myself and Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy for my cousin for xmas.

thing is, my cousin works at an investment bank and is usually too busy to read, and on the train back home i started Blood Meridian and it looks pretty confusing, lots of "he" and "him" and "the kid" and names being thrown around that you don't know who they belong to. do things get less confusing later on?

I did exactly the same thing yesterday

Just a general comment (I haven't read Blood Meridian) that McCarthy is a confusing writer who demands your attention to follow the plot and that his books are generally hard but rewarding reads.

Paulo Coelho: The Alchemist

yeah it was very repetitive, and the constant foreshadowing/saying what would happen in the future got pretty annoying



yeah, Brahm pretty much got it down. i didn't understand exactly what was going on in Blood Meridian the first time i read it, and it's also incredibly gruesome and violent.

speaking of McCarthy, i just started The Orchard Keeper. so far the only earlier book of his i've tried to read (Suttree) was way too OTT with descriptions and i couldn't get through it, but the Orchard Keeper seems manageable.

Good book. It's not really a story though, more like a long parable. Apparently it's changed people's lives and stuff though.

Started Shadow & Claw. Interesting and certainly original, but man this is dense stuff. Takes me forever just to read a few pages. But, with more time on winter break, I should be able to get into it.

I'll be reading over the holidays:

Gene Wolfe- Latro in the Mist (omnibus that includes two novels, Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Arete)

Jeff Vandermeer- City of Saints and Madmen

Cormac McCarthy- The Road

Erich Gruen- The Last Generation of the Roman Republic

Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale

Jean Baudrillard - Simulacra and Simulation.
Just going to read a few of the essays. His philosophy generally seems pretty ridiculous so don't know how much I'll actually care for this.